The Planning Authority gave the green light to transform the derelict Savoy Hotel in Sliema into a six-storey business centre with four levels of underground parking with an overlying public piazza at street level.

The project will also include two restaurants at the upper ground floor level, the restoration of the dilapidated hotel, the demolition of a derelict annexe building and the demolition of the decommissioned fuel station.

The former Savoy Hotel, with its multifaceted bay windows, is a landmark building at the top of Rue D’Argens. The hotel was such a landmark back in its heyday that the area is still known by that name today.

Despite its state of abandonment and being home to illegal squatters, the building was granted Grade 2 protection status by the Planning Authority in 2018. A year later, it suffered further damage after rubbish dumped there mysteriously caught fire.

The building was sold by auction in 2022 for €12.8 million to Exalco Group Ltd, which owns six large business centres in prime locations across Malta.

The site covers an area of almost 1,600 square metres.

The former Savoy Hotel, initially owned by the Cuschieri family, was originally conceived as a two-storey house named Villa West End. In 1904 it started to operate as a hotel until the mid-1980s when it was closed due to the lack of maintenance and an arson attack.

The surroundings are characterised by a degree of traditional two-storey townhouses with a recently added presence of modern apartments and commercial outlets.

Within the vicinity of the site, there is Villa Portelli, partly fronting the former Savoy Hotel, the Holy Trinity Anglican Church, two landmark Moorish houses along Triq Rodolfu, the former Imperial Hotel which is now a home for the elderly, St James Hospital with the adjacent Palazzo Capua and Villa Bonici former school and open-air cinema.

Part of the property, including the main building and the front garden and pillared boundary, is collectively scheduled as a Grade 2 cultural heritage monument.

The Superintendence for Cultural Heritage gave the project its green light, noting it will preserve and restore the fabric and structure of the historical building, with demolition being limited to more recent accretions with no architectural value.

It observed that the contemporary design will permit and enhance the legibility of the historical part of the property while being immediately identifiable as later construction. The volumes proposed above the hotel are receded so as not to impede the legibility of the historical structure, while also screening the unsightly blank party wall looming over it.

According to a traffic impact assessment, all but one junction around the development will be congested by 2033, even without the proposed development.

It noted that the site, which will not be operational during weekends, is well-served by public transport and is within walking distance from a densely populated area.

The permit was granted against a bank guarantee of €23,000 and a planning gain of €40,000 instead of €53,000 since the petrol station was being removed.

The permit was approved with eight votes in favour and one again, being that of NGO representative Romano Cassar.